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How 2 Trade Low-tiers for Dum-Dums (+Really Basic Stuff)
By Sunflower and 1 collaborators
Hello, young unexperienced newcomer! I still have 0 idea how you ended up here but since I've written a guide about unusual trading, might as well cover the low-side of things. In this guide, I'll cover low-tier/normal trading + some really basic stuff.

   
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Created by
BloodiestBanana
Offline
Sunflower
Offline
Category: Trading
Languages: English
Posted
Updated
25 Jun, 2021 @ 12:38am
5 Aug, 2021 @ 8:25pm
714 Unique Visitors
32 Current Favorites
Guide Index
Overview
Introduction
 
How to Start Trading
 
Painted cosmetics
 
Stranges with Parts
 
Skins & Warpaints
 
---- The End
 
Comments
Introduction
Whatever your goal in trading is, we all start somewhere. Right off the bat, you need to login to Backpack.tf to start trading. Backpack.tf is the number one site to buy, sell, and most importantly price tf2 items. Backpack.tf is the site you'll be using a lot of times to price check items, most of the time you don't even need to use other sites.

Let's say you've successfully logged in to Backpack.tf, now at the top right corner of the main page you'll see your profile, if you click on it you'll be transported to your "backpack" profile. There's gonna be a lot of confusing stuff that'll pop up, but since you've just started we'll only focus on the items displayed on your "backpack". To price check the items you have in your inventory, simply hover your mouse over the item you want to price check on (Your items should be in little boxes separating each other). After that something should pop up, just click "Classifieds" to see how much people are buying and selling it for.

Now the most important part of Backpack.tf, price checking. Go back to the main page and to the left of your profile there should be a search bar. Simply type in the name of the item you want to price check, ex: "Strange Scattergun", "Noh Mercy", etc (Without the quotation marks).
How to Start Trading
We've covered all the really basic stuff, now let's actually start doing some trading! I recommend starting with 1-2 key(s). Starting with a low amount will help you learn the ropes of trading, if you start with a high amount like 10 keys you have a very good chance to get sharked (Being lied about an item's price) or potentially scammed if you don't know how to price check. You can buy a key from the steam community market.


What to Buy?
You should buy items that don't have a fixed/stable price. Like, skins, stranges with parts, painted cosmetics, etc. I'll be diving into each one and hopefully you'll understand my vomit of information.
Painted cosmetics
---- The Basic Stuff
Let's start off with the simplest one, painted cosmetics. They basically change the colors of the cosmetic you applied it to based of the paint you're using. You can see what the cosmetic will look like with the paint by simply typing the cosmetic's name in your Internet search bar. The very first result should be from the tf2 wiki, click on that and you'll see each painted variants of the cosmetic (Note that some cosmetics can't be painted)

You can find how much people (Usually bots) are buying and selling painted cosmetics for simply by hovering your mouse over the cosmetic (Doesn't have to be painted) and click "Classifieds". A new tab should pop up and if you scroll down a bit you'll start to see some painted variants of that specific cosmetic.

---- Paint Tier List
I'm too lazy to list off each paint, so here are the desirable ones.
  • Desirable: Australium Gold, Pink as Hell, The Bitter Taste of Defeat and Lime, Mann Co. Orange, A Deep Commitment to Purple, An
    Extraordinary Abundance of Tinge, A Distinctive Lack of Hue.
  • Stay away from these unless the seller is not charging for the paint: Peculiarly Drab Tincture, Aged Moustache Grey, Radigan
    Conagher Brown, Ye Olde Rustic Colour, Muskelmannbraun, Zepheniah's Greed, Drably Olive
  • They're ok: Everything else I didn't mention

---- How to price, buy, and sell painted cosmetics
A lot of people say "Add the value of the cosmetic + 50% of the paint can's value", but a painted cosmetic is simply not worth that much. Some paints are more desirable/popular than others, but it also depends on the cosmetic.

Never buy from bots, they overprice a lot. I can safely say you should buy painted cosmetics for the value of the base (unpainted) cosmetic + 10% of the paint can's value. Might be a bit low but it's better than buying for too much. You should sell the painted cosmetics for around 10-15 refined above how much you bought it for IF you bought a cosmetic with a desirable paint. If you bought the non-desirable ones (According to the paint tier list above), you can sell them for only a few refined above what you bought it for.

Stranges with Parts
---- The Basic Stuff
Stranges are weapons that counts your kills. But what class you killed, how you killed them, how many robots you killed, etc are not counted by just the stranges. That's where the strange parts comes in. You can have up to 3 strange parts on a single strange weapon.

---- How to price, buy, and sell Stranges w/Parts
Like painted cosmetics, strange parts increases the price of the strange weapon. Some parts are more expensive than others. But unlike them, they dropped more significantly in price once applied. I recommend buying them for the base value of the strange + 5% of the strange parts' value. Sell them for a few refined above what you bought it for.
Skins & Warpaints
---- The Basic Stuff
Skins and warpaints are by far the most riskiest out of the three, not many people like buying them. Skins can be strange, killstreak, and sometimes festivized.

---- How to price, buy, and sell Skins and Warpaints
Skins & Warpaints are divided into "Grades". Civilian Grade, Freelance Grade, Mercenary Grade, Commando Grade, Assassin Grade, and Elite Grade. They also have "Wears", but really you just need to know battle-scarred is the worst and factory new is the best. If the skin doesn't have anything applied on it you'll rely on what grade and wear to price the skin, like a factory new elite grade will always be better than a battle-scarred civilian grade. It's also important to know what weapon it's applied on if its a skin, the more popular a weapon is, the better. Like for example a rocket launcher skin is going to be used more than a shortstop skin.

Depending on its grade and wear, and if its strange, festivized, or killstreak, if there's a "~" that means I recommend to not buy it. And again, just sell them for a few refined above what you bought it for. Prices on how much you should buy them are in this list:

  • Civilian Grade
    - Battle-Scarred: ~
    - Well-Worn: ~
    - Field-Tested: ~
    - Minimal Wear: ~
    - Factory New: 1.33 Refined

  • Freelance Grade
    - Battle-Scarred: ~
    - Well-Worn: ~
    - Field-Tested: 1.66 Refined
    - Minimal Wear: 2 Refined
    - Factory New: 2-3 Refined

  • Mercenary Grade
    - Battle-Scarred: ~
    - Well-Worn: ~
    - Field-Tested: 2 Refined
    - Minimal Wear: 2-3 Refined
    - Factory New: 4-10 Refined

  • Commando Grade
    - Battle-Scarred: ~
    - Well-Worn: ~
    - Field-Tested: 3-5 Refined
    - Minimal Wear: 5 Refined
    - Factory New: 6-12 Refined

  • Assassin Grade
    - Battle-Scarred: ~
    - Well-Worn: 4 Refined
    - Field-Tested: 6 Refined
    - Minimal Wear: 8 Refined
    - Factory New: 7-15 Refined

  • Elite Grade (Too Risky)


  • Extras
    Strange Skins: 10-15 Refined
    Festivized Skins: 10-15 Refined
    Basic Ks Skins: 5-10 Refined
    Specialized Ks Skins: 15-20 Refined
    Professional Ks Skins: ~ (Too Risky)

I didn't mention elite grades and professional killstreaks because they cost a lot, making it really risky. And there are some exceptions for some warpaints, even if their grade is only for example mercenary they might cost a lot more than some elite grades. My point is pricing skins is really tricky, I can only give you a rough price since there are so many exceptions unlike pricing a cosmetic.
---- The End
Well that sums up my guide, sorry if I made a mistake along the way. I've been typing for around 4 hours now, anyways have fun trading!

~ DuckBaguettes
16 Comments
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Bandit 13 May, 2024 @ 4:07pm 
low tier 🥱
gd 2 Jan, 2024 @ 2:49pm 
yes,it is still worth trading in 2022(2024)
Axerious 17 Sep, 2022 @ 7:44pm 
Is it still worth trading in 2022?
William Tecumseh Sherman 22 Jun, 2022 @ 2:05pm 
Heheha
Cat_Soldier 21 Jun, 2022 @ 11:41am 
tf2
compiler 1 Jan, 2022 @ 3:10am 
tbh if you saw a Civilian Grade war paint (any quality) at <2 ref I think you can buy them, then sell it at warpaints.tf for 2 ref, that's how I got from 2 refs up to 14 refs
OrangeKRUSH 12 Nov, 2021 @ 8:37pm 
ah ok
Sunflower  [author] 12 Nov, 2021 @ 3:02pm 
Cause, Why Not?
OrangeKRUSH 12 Nov, 2021 @ 2:21pm 
why is everything bold
Chronobyte 24 Jul, 2021 @ 12:46am 
Not true. Many high tier collectors do have private backpacks and comments. Mostly these collectors that buy everything with cash and sit on it forever